Music Deferred: A Reappraisal of the Legacy of Pierre Schaeffer'sTreatise on Musical Objects(1966)

Abstract

AbstractThis article reinterprets the tension between sound and music in Pierre Schaeffer's 1966Treatise on Musical Objects. Schaeffer famously insisted that theTreatisedid not address music or composition; scholars have therefore engaged with it primarily as a theoretical text on sound and listening. In this article, however, I argue that the denial and deferral of music throughout theTreatiseshould be considered a discrete and key part of its theoretical contributions. By the early 1960s, Schaeffer's aesthetic frustration with the practice ofmusique concrètehad blossomed into something of an ethical imperative and paradox. He saw it necessary to suspend all musical activity in the present, so as to salvage music's future. This dynamic is key to understanding Schaeffer's controversial and influential calls for the deferral of cultural responses to sound in theTreatise, as illustrated by the practices of ‘deconditioning’ and ‘reconditioning’.